Chibi Dinos
About the Company
Chibi Dinos is a unique NFT-based community that blends basketball fandom with a play-to-earn gaming model. The project offers two main games: “Primal Pick’ems,” a predictive game where players forecast the outcomes of real-world basketball matches, and “Primal Hoop,” an arcade-style basketball game. The company launched with the aim of creating a family-friendly, interactive space that appeals to collectors, gamers, and sports enthusiasts.
The project initially sold 10,000 Chibi Dinos NFTs, with revenues from the sale split between graphic designers and reinvestment into the business. With $1 million in monthly revenue, Chibi Dinos has gained recognition for its innovative approach to NFTs and gaming. The platform’s key differentiator is its community-first approach, creating a welcoming space for NFT enthusiasts.
Idea Behind Company
Sean Kelly’s love for basketball and experience with the NFT space, particularly with platforms like NBA Topshot, inspired Chibi Dinos. Kelly and his co-founder, Ariel Riveros, initially considered creating basketball-themed jerseys but later decided to design dinosaur-based NFTs as they noticed a gap in the market for dinosaur-related NFT projects. The concept quickly evolved from just jerseys to Chibi Dinos, a project combining their mutual interests in basketball and dinosaurs.
With $100,000 invested upfront in marketing, Kelly focused on promoting the project through platforms like Twitter, partnering with NBA players to boost visibility. The project’s success was almost immediate, with the pre-sale selling out in just 40 seconds and the public sale following suit within 18 minutes. This instant success validated their concept and helped them realize they had tapped into an exciting niche.
Creating the Company
The creation of Chibi Dinos involved a significant amount of brainstorming and collaboration between Kelly and Riveros. Though they outsourced the actual artwork, they were heavily involved in the design process, working closely with graphic designers to create the Chibi Dinos characters. Instagram played a pivotal role in sourcing the design team, with Kelly leveraging his personal brand to find talent through social media.
Chibi Dinos’ initial 10,000 NFT designs were based on different dinosaur species and attributes, which were then randomly generated for uniqueness. The quick turnaround on production, taking only 14 days to complete design, development, and marketing, was largely due to the extensive preparation and understanding of the NFT market that Kelly and Riveros brought into the project.
Launching the Business
The official launch of Chibi Dinos was a high-stakes moment for Kelly and Riveros. They took a fair approach by not reserving any NFTs for themselves, choosing instead to mint or buy them on the secondary market. Despite their initial nerves, the launch was a huge success, with the entire collection selling out in under 20 minutes.
Kelly credits much of their success to their community-focused marketing strategy. They actively engaged their target audience through Twitter and leveraged organic growth rather than paid advertising. After launch, they turned their attention to building a strong community through platforms like Discord, where users could interact, trade, and engage with the Chibi Dinos universe. This community has since become the backbone of the project, with many of the current team members sourced directly from within the Chibi Dinos community.
Earnings
Today, Chibi Dinos is generating $1 million in monthly revenue, largely thanks to their initial NFT sale and secondary market transactions, which have surpassed 2,005 ETH on OpenSea. Their community engagement remains strong, with little need for traditional advertising. The project’s future is focused on expanding the play-to-earn gaming aspect, with the beta launch of their “Primal Pick’ems” predictive game and the upcoming “Primal Hoop” basketball game.
Kelly emphasizes that building a strong community has been one of the most valuable lessons in his entrepreneurial journey. The close-knit and loyal community that Chibi Dinos has cultivated is one of its greatest assets, helping the project thrive in an ever-evolving NFT space.
